ENOUGH!
by adamski
Summary: Shampoo goes too far. There's only so much a guy can take...
1. Chapter 1

The door shook as someone pounded on the door of the Cat café. The bolts shuddered and bent with the force of the blows.

Cologne rushed downstairs full of fury at being disturbed so rudely at this time of night. Who dared?

She flung the door open to be confronted by the devil incarnate in the form of Ranma Saotome who stormed into the café ablaze with fury.

"Where is she?" He roared.

"Who?" Cologne had never seen such fury from the boy.

"Your granddaughter. She tried to kill Akane again tonight while she was in bed. This ends now!"

"Shampoo is merely acting within the bounds of Amazon law to further her own claim."

"Listen to me old ghoul." There was a tone to his voice that she had never heard before. Cold, determined, threatening. "I've already killed to protect her once. Don't think I'll hesitate to do it again. If Shampoo hurts her she'll _beg_ me for death before the end. Are we clear?"

"I don't take well to threats boy." She countered, her voice cold, though slightly unnerved by his tone and his words.

"It's not a threat. It's a promise. No one hurts Akane. No one." He all but whispered the last part.

I can't really fault his logic. Nor can I ignore what Mousse told me about Phoenix Mountain. He's not the type to exaggerate, especially about Saotomes' skills.

"Very well son in- Ranma. Shampoo will not do anything to harm Akane Tendo."

"Good. Then there is no need for any unpleasantness between us." And with that he was gone from the café.

Cologne turned to the other person in the café who had been quiet through the exchange.

"I'm surprised you allowed Saotome to say such things Mousse. Normally you'd attack him for even mentioning Shampoos name." The old Amazon was amazed at the change in Mousse since China. He seemed to lack the vehemence towards the youth that he always held.

"Things change. I know he is not interested in Shampoo anymore."

"How so?" She was interested to hear the tale. No one had given her great details about the events in china beyond Saotomes incredible victory.

"I saw his face." He said quietly. "There was a moment when I saw a look of such desolation and despair on his face that my heart almost wept for him. That moment showed me he is not interested in Shampoo."

"What happened there?" She half demanded.

"It is not my secret to tell." And with that he received a blow to the head for his troubles.


	2. Chapter 2

_This is after the end of the manga and before the wedding attempt. It is a Ranma/Akane story with others later if people want. Most of Ranma's problems will be solved but he'll get a new one. _

_The last chapter was a bit short but they will be longer. There are going to be some flashbacks coming up and violence…_

_Thanks a lot for the reviews, good and bad. Sorry if people don't like OOC but it's my story – though I don't own any characters unless I made them up._

A few days previously…

It all started a few days ago. A change had come over the Tendo household. A calmness that was not there before the journey to China. This was mainly because Ranma spent most of his time training furiously in the dojo and so had little time to talk with Akane to start any arguments. By the time the evening came he was too tired to bother with any name calling.

Akane was internally getting worried. She didn't remember much about china. She remembered getting knocked out and then somehow waking up, mostly naked, in Ranma's arms. She'd been too embarrassed by it to really ask what had happened and Ranma didn't seem to want to volunteer any information. In fact he kind of seemed to be avoiding her…he seemed to be avoiding everyone…

Ranma's mind was firm. He HAD to train hard. He MUST be the best. He had to be able to protect Akane from anything. Plus, if he was dead tired at the end of the day there was more chance he would have a dreamless sleep. He didn't really want any more of the ones that followed him after china. Images of Akane's lifeless body, never waking. They were images he wanted to forget.

Ranma wanted to tell Akane what had happened fully, he did…but how do you tell someone that you realised you loved them after they had nearly died…

"Ranma dear." Came a soft voice as Ukyo walked into the dojo, "Why are you training so hard? I've been worried about you."

"I've been busy Ukyo. I've had a lot on my mind sorry." Ukyo didn't miss the fact that he had used her proper name. He had been so quiet and distant lately. After she'd had a talk with Ryoga more had been made clear to her.

_That comes up later_

"What's going on here?" Akane's furious voice cut into the conversation. Akane couldn't believe this. Ranma had barely said a word since they'd come back and now she found him chin wagging with Ukyo!!!

"I-" Ranma began but was cut off by Ukyo.

"Akane we need to talk. Ranma you stay here." Both were surprised at the fact that she didn't use his nickname.

Akane followed giving Ranma a suspicious look and he simply shrugged in response.

When they were in the garden together Ukyo turned to Akane.

"Akane, we need to sort this out." She, unlike Shampoo, knew the situation now and as much as it pained her she knew what she had to do.

"Sort out what?" Akane was suspicious and who can blame her.

"Ranma. I'm renouncing my claim to him."

Akane could only stare in shock at first but that was replaced by suspicion…"What's caused this change of heart?"

"I know that I'm not the one he wants. You are."

"How do you know that? I don't think anything that happens shows that." Akane scoffed.

"You're the one he always goes off to rescue." Ukyo said sadly.

"He goes off to rescue anyone he cares about." Akane countered, refusing to budge. She wanted to hold on to her anger at him so she didn't have room for the more awkward emotions that Ranma caused in her.

"Yes." Ukyo conceded, "but it's always you he goes to rescue _first_." She raised an eyebrow checking for Akanes reaction. She had gone quiet and a thoughtful expression came across her face.

Then Shampoo burst into the room, hurling various throwing daggers at them that were dodged or blocked by Ukyos spatula. One or two grazed Akanes shoulder.

"Obstacle dies!!!" she snarled charging at Akane again, ignoring Ukyo.

Akane dodged and weaved the attacks knowing she could not keep up the dance for much longer.

She did not have to. An avenging demon with a heart as gentle as a child's but now willing to act out such atrocities on those who would harm those it cared for.

"ENOUGH!" yelled Ranma snatching Shampoos bonbori from the air and throwing it through the wall of the dojo. This time she had gone too far. He had had enough. He struck Shampoo backhanded across the face sending her spinning to the floor. She knew what the situation was now surely?

They all stared in shock. Ranma had never struck a "real" girl at all, let alone struck a girl with something approaching his full power.

"Get out Shampoo. Do NOT come near Akane again. Are we clear?"

"Airen?" Shampoo whimpered in shock.

"DO NOT CALL ME THAT!!" he roared furiously. "Are we clear?" his voice dangerously quiet and even more threatening.

Shampoo nodded mutely and left in a storm of tears.

Ranma checked on Akane.

"Are you okay?" he asked her tenderly as he checked her over for injuries. Akane could only nod in shock at his tenderness just after he had been the most violent she had ever seen him. Yes he'd fought, a lot, bet he'd never been like that.

"What?" he snapped at the watching people who had come running and watched with their jaws on the floor. "I should have let her hurt Akane?" They all suddenly found the floor very interesting and no one dared say anything. He snorted and left the house now he knew Akane was okay. He was going to put a stop to this.

"Oh my. Did that just happen?" asked a confused Kasumi. "What's happened to Ranma?"

The only who knew fully what happened, Genma, said nothing.

_Back to the present…_

Ranma left the cat café still not fully calmed down. How dare she. _How dare she!_

"Saotome." Came a quiet voice from the shadows. It was Mousse. The trip to China had produced one good by product in that there was a new understanding between the two martial artists.

"What is it? I'm still in kind of a bad mood."

"I understand my friend. I wanted to apologise for not stopping Shampoo. It will not happen again I swear." He was very serious. Ranma was glad that they understood one another now. It was good to have an ally for once.

Ranma calmed somewhat. "Thanks. Are you still set on Shampoo?" He hoped the Amazon youth would open his eyes.

"No." He looked sad for while. "There was a time I would have killed for her but I have seen too much now. I will not waste my life on a spoilt brat who only cares about herself."

"You finally worked it out." He looked at the weapons master with new respect. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to meditate on it. I hope that my path will become clearer to me."

"Then good luck duck boy. If I can help you in anyway…" he gave him a smirk and was off again.

"See you soon Saotome."

Ranma's next stop was to see perhaps the one person who was, slightly, removed from the extreme lunacy of his life. He was lucky that they also happened to be his mother.

"Ranma!" she beamed as she gave him a huge hug. He returned it gingerly. It was still strange for him to receive love and affection from someone who didn't want anything in return.

Nodoka could see something troubling her son and brought him inside to talk. After a while in which Ranma explained recent events he got to the crux of his problems.

"I'm tired of this Mum. I'm tired of the other fiancées threatening Akane thinking I wont do anything 'cos they're girls. Tired of being a doormat. Is that wrong of me?"

"Why should you not want to protect your fiancée? That seems perfectly natural to me. Hitting a girl _is_ allowed in some circumstances…"

Across town events were being set in motion that would change everything

Shampoo poured through her Grandmothers books searching for the means to achieve her goal. It was always Akane. If she could remove her then Ranma would be hers. She had to be careful, for in China she had seen what he was truly capable of when fighting for what mattered to him.

She needed to destroy Akane at all costs and she couldn't let Ranma stop her. Not if she wanted her to fulfil her hopes and dreams.

Then she found what she was looking for. It could give her her hearts desire, at the expense of her soul…

Like it? Wish I'd done something different? Let me know.

In the next chapter someone's going to die…


	3. Chapter 3

Cologne was in the kitchen when she felt it. Something upstairs that caused her dread. She heard Mousse drop a glass signifying he could feel it too. They looked at each other and ran up to Shampoo's room.

They found it empty and one of Colognes books and some empty bottles on the floor. What was her granddaughter up to now? She read the page it was open on. Then she went white as a sheet. _Not THAT one! Please no!_

"Mousse!" she yelled to the short sighted young man. "We have to go quickly!"

"Yes…but what are we going to do?" he asked as they leapt through the window in pursuit.

"We have to kill Shampoo." Cologne answered quietly, well hidden tears in her eyes.

Ryoga walked down the street, once more unsure of where he was. He was thinking about his talk with Ukyo previously. He'd turned up at the okonomiyaki chef's restaurant by accident. She had been eager to talk to him about what had been going on in China since Ranma had been avoiding her. He couldn't really turn down free food.

In some ways he and Ranma were more alike than he would care to admit.

"Come on sugar. Tell me what happened. Ranma honey won't tell me anything." Ukyo whined. She had been alarmed at the change in Ranma, the way he seemed more protective of Akane now.

"Certain things happened Ukyo. Things that showed me peoples real feelings. I recommend you take my advice and forget about Ranma."

"Never. He's _my_ fiancée. Akane can't have him."

"Then I'm sorry for you. You can't win and you may lose any chance of happiness you could with someone else through bitterness.." She started crying uncontrollably and , being a bit better with his emotions when it wasn't Akane, he gently held and let her cry. She had clung to him in her grief.

He was disturbed from his confusing thoughts when "something" that looked kind of looked like Shampoo ran past him followed by two very worried amazons. "Don't just stand there fool. Help us stop her!!" yelled Cologne as they set off after her.

Ryoga charged off in the opposite direction until he felt Cologne grab him by the ear to bring him with them.

At the Tendo household things were odd. Ranma had been unusually quiet and everyone was treading on eggshells around him. He had been irritable and edgy since the last incident. Genma now had a broken arm courtesy of Ranma losing patience with him. Ranma was again in the Dojo striking a punch bag so hard that it was splitting open.

How dare Shampoo. How dare she! He didn't want to hurt her but had been forced too. He couldn't allow her to threaten Akane any longer. He couldn't allow anyone to do that. If he had to sacrifice his honour to do so then so be it.

"Ranma?" Akane walked slowly into the Dojo, "are you okay?" She was really worried about him now. She knew he would eat himself up with guilt even though he had had no real choice.

"I'm okay Akane. I did what I had to do to protect you. I still feel bad about hitting Shampoo though, even if she did deserve it." He gave her a small smile which made her giggle.

"I wasn't lying you know." He went on. When he saw her puzzlement he added, "You are cute when you smile."

Akane blushed but couldn't say any more as there was a commotion outside. They ran out to see the others transfixed by a new visitor who had dropped into the yard.

They stared in a mixture of horror, shock and fear at what was in front of them. It was Shampoo but taller, with teeth and talons and hideous markings over her face. She snarled at them and then charged at Akane. Ranma tried to intercept her but the creature was too quick and ducked around him with lightning speed.

Chains and whips lashed out binding her in a maelstrom of iron and leather as Mousse held her fast.

"Well done Boy!" cheered Cologne as she hopped into the yard dragging the lost boy with her..

She was too quick to be pleased as the being pulled on her tethers and threw Mousse into Ranma and again charged Akane.

The Shampoo creature hurled a blade at Akane. It would have struck her in the neck if not for the Katana hurled by Ranma's mother that struck it and deflected it so that it merely struck her in the shoulder.

Akane fell to the floor with a cry as Shampoo charged at her to finish the job.

"Bakusai tenketsu!!" cried Ryoga as he shattered the ground in front of Shampoo forcing her into the air and she was struck with a kick from Ranma that threw her out of the dojo driving her off.

Ranma would normally have followed but instead was running to Akane and gently gathered the girl into his arms checking her shoulder and the dagger protruding from it.

"This is going to hurt Akane" he whispered to her and looked into her eyes. She bit her lip and gripped his hand in reassurance.

She screamed in pain as he withdrew the blade and then held her tightly. "I'm sorry" her whispered into her hair not realising she had passed out. The wound was clean and there was little blood loss thankfully. If it had hit its target she would be dead.

"I'm sorry, I failed again." Mousse was filled with regret as he watched the scene. "I didn't know what she was planning."

"There was nothing you could do Mousse. If you had tried you would be dead. Even I can't stop her now. The spell makes her nearly invincible." Cologne consoled him.

"Ranma, what are we going to do?" Ryoga asked looking at the boy who had said nothing, simply looked at the figure he held in his arms, his face hidden by his hair. Ryoga had seen him like this before in China when he had cradled Akanes almost lifeless body. There was the same air of sadness in him. He gently laid Akane down on a pillow and then passed her hand to Kasumi who he gave a weak smile too as he stood. He gave one last sad, caring look to Akane and turned to answer Ryoga.

When he looked up Ryoga had to take a step back in shock and he was amazed to admit, fear. He never thought that Ranma could terrify him. He was wrong.

"The only thing I can do. I will kill her. _I will kill her!!_" He turned to look at the others with a face full of bleak determination, "even if it kills me."

With that, he was off out the yard in search of retribution.

"We must help him. Maybe all of us together can stop her before she kills her target." Yelled Cologne urging the others to follow.

Hope people enjoyed this. Next chapter we get to see the fight I promised!! Wanted it this chapter but needed a bit more to happen first.

I plan on maybe 3 or 4 more chapters after this. There are a lot of issues to be sorted.


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks so much for the reviews. I promise romance is coming but need to focus on action first to set it up for afterwards.

Cologne was worried as she flew over the roofs of Nerima. Very worried. Not only had Shampoo used an extremely powerful, evil, spell to transform herself into a near demonic form but something was happening that was scaring her even more.

Ranma was changing as well. His aura forming around him as he shot across the rooftops too fast for the others to keep up. The size was immense, far larger than any even she had ever seen. But it was the colour that scared her most.

Cologne had seen many auras in her life. Red for passion, purple for despair, blue for anger. She had not seen black for many years. The desire to kill is a terrifying thing to behold in a person. It was letting Ranma move faster. He was channelling his hate into every motion of his body. Yet he had complete control.

The prospect of Ranma not holding back and wanting to kill someone scared her more than anything you could remember. Even the monster she imagined living in her wardrobe as a 3 year old could not match this feeling.

As he was hopping across the rooftops in pursuit Ranma suddenly realised with horror that he was being led in a circle. She was heading back for Akane! How could he have been so stupid as to not realise it? He was not going to lose Akane again. He'd thought he'd lost her once and it had nearly killed him. There was no way it was going to happen again!

_I'm coming 'Kane!!_

Cologne realised there was no way she could catch up to Ranma before the final confrontation. He was the only one able to do what needed to be done. Her granddaughter was gone. There was no choice left.

"Ranma!! You have to finish it! Shampoo is gone! Kill the creature!" she yelled into the night.

Kasumi was tending to Akane in the Tendo living room. Nodoka was also sitting nearby, her sword at the ready. She was not going to let anything happen to her future daughter in law. Kasumi couldn't help but smile. Ranma definitely got his looks and his courage from his mother. The look of determination on her face was exactly like Ranma. She was glad he was more like his mother and not his father.

Then it arrived. The creature looked like Shampoo would if she were to have made a pact with a demon – which she had in fact done. It licked its lips, revealing fangs, as she glared at the vulnerable Tendo girls. Faster than a blink she threw a dagger at Akane which was stopped by the quick swipe of a Katana blade by Nodoka.

Shampoo hissed and launched on. Genma and Soun were sent flying with contemptuous ease. Even Happosai, who'd turned up at some point, lasted bare seconds against Shampoo chan. One day a pretty girl would be the death of him.

All seemed lost but then the angel of Death descended upon the Tendo dojo. He caught Shampoos' punch in his palm staring at her with a look of hatred and threw her across the compound.

They all stared at the figure that stood there. It was Ranma but the air that he carried sent a shiver down their spines. A black battle aura making him look like something from a nightmare.

"_My son. What is happening to you?"_ thought Nodoka.

Shampoo lunged forward with inhuman speed again trying to get to Akane. Her nails were like talons and her teeth like fangs. A vision of hatred and rage. Against a normal foe she would be unbeatable.

But Ranma was no normal opponent. Moving faster than even Cologne could see he moved before Shampoo causing her to jump back as he pressed onward. There was a flurry of blows between the two before Shampoo was flung back against the wall, Ranma in pursuit. His face a mask of pure rage.

He struck the demon Shampoo with a kick. "I'll kill you." A punch broke her jaw. "I'll kill you!" An elbow crushed her ribs. "I'll kill you!!!" A combination of kicks left massive bruises. "I'LL KILL YOU!!!!!!!" A blast of energy to her face flung her through the air. It was a horrible sight to behold if you looked closely at Ranma's usually gentle face filled with hatred as he struck her again and again blood slowly streaming down his fists.

Shampoo collapsed to the ground. She tried to stand but coughed and blood gushed from her mouth as she stumbled and fell to her knees. Her shoulder was broken and she was sure that she had internal injuries. She was not long for this world. Then a shadow fell over her.

Ranma stood above Shampoo. His face was a confused mix of hatred and sadness as he brought his hand down on her neck. With a hate filled roar and a sickening crack, Shampoo was no more. As her life ended the spell wore off and she reverted to the girl she had been.

I would have been better if he'd sunk to the ground staring at his hands in horror. It would have been better if tears had streamed down his face. Anything would have been better than the indifferent look as he stared at Shampoos body.

Ding dong the witch is dead!!

I'm amazed at how many people seem to hate shampoo. Hoped you liked the death. There will be more fall out in the next chapter and - finally – some romance.


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